Basically a `poor boy meets rich girl` story, Snowfall in Taipei centres on Xiao Muo (Chen Bo-Lin), a young man who is brought up in an old Taipei neighbourhood, and ends up meeting minor celeb May (Tong Yao), a singer who has lost her voice. Throw a stereotypical journalist and a slightly tyrannical music producer into the mix, and you`ve got the plot in its entirety. Oh, and there`s a love triangle in the mix as well, but that goes without saying.
Snowfall in Taipei is plagued with problems of characterisation. Chen Bo-Lin comes across as likable enough, but the shallow treatment of the interaction between his character and Tong Yao`s is both unconvincing and undeveloped. The plot device of May losing her voice comes across as sheer laziness on the part of the script writers, and frankly lacks the chops to articulate her character`s idiosyncrasies given the enforced lack of dialogue in the first half of the film.
There are some touching moments in the movie, but they are few and far between. Snowfall in Taipei`s creators seem content with creating a film that feels like a mix between the most beautifully-shot tourism advertisement ever and a 90-minute-long MV. Even if you`re a romance junkie, you`d be well advised to give this one a miss.
Summary: Tiresomely beautiful.
Rating: 2 out of 5
Raphael Lim